Game Review

Mario Party: Island Tour Review

Back in 1999, Mario and his crew could have taught Prince a thing or two about how to celebrate the coming of a new millennium. Establishing itself as a mainstay on the Nintendo 64, the Mario Party series showed up three times to blister hands and bring friends and family together to yell at each other at the top of their lungs. However, in the years since then, we’ve experienced a roller-coaster of quality as Mario's party mode has struggled to recapture its glory days. Things became too silly and convoluted, with winning being based largely on chance and luck. Mario Party: Island Tour probably won’t do anything to change your opinion of the series — nor will it win over those lost by the shortcomings of recent instalments — but it may still provide enough enjoyment for you to want a place on the guest list.

When jumping in, you have the typical option to get a party started with computer players or take advantage of the Download Play functionality of the 3DS to invite up to 3 other people – sadly there is no online play, so this is local fun only. Once you’ve got your participants in tow, the first stop for most is going to be Party Mode, where you can check out all the new game boards designed specifically for this handheld outing. There are five boards available from the get-go, regardless of settings, and another that can only be played with at least 3 human players in attendance, all with different rules and quirks — it's not about stars any more.

The boards are tagged with ratings that denote the level of skill, luck, and amount of mini-games involved. Luck is the one that may annoy many players, and outside of a couple of boards, fate factors heavily into the equation. Inexperienced players will love that they’re able to shine brighter than others at a game, but everyone else will be somewhat annoyed. Why not just flip a coin, declare a winner, and forgo the proceedings altogether? Probably because even when the boards don’t quite deliver on their potential, Nintendo usually knows how to produce a fantastic collection of mini-games, and the boards are the adhesive that give those games substance. Unfortunately, this is the area in which we have serious issues with Mario Party: Island Tour.

For instance, on Rocket Road – which visually mixes elements of Mario Galaxy with Rainbow Road from Mario Kart – players race around a track on rocket cars trying to accumulate boosters to blast their way to the goal. In the 10 to 15 minutes it takes to complete this board, you’ll be lucky to squeeze in more than a single mini-game. Because of this, it feels completely throwaway in the end, and even the less-experienced players that joined us never wanted to revisit it. Unfortunately, a couple other boards follow the same recipe as well, lowering the number of boards with any real substance down to two or three – depending on your tastes. Without a doubt, the brevity of these excursions — in conjunction with the often ridiculous rules defining each board — makes them the weakest component of Island Tour.

Thank god then for the mini-games. The last thing you want to be doing in a 4-player game is reading a lot and waiting for everyone to comprehend instructions – even less so on a handheld console that gets played on the go. With the 80 mini-games shuffled into the mix, that’s not a problem. Simplicity is the name of the game, and thankfully in this case that doesn’t mean skill is sacrificed. There are still games revolving solely around luck as usual, but they seem to be peppered in loosely enough that they won’t annoy those veteran players looking to flex their skills.

One thing that may cause a bit of moaning is the lack of asymmetrical mini-games – there are no 3 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2 matches, only free-for-all. You’d think this would present a problem, but it doesn't. Keeping things easy to understand and streamlining directions does wonders for the rate of play. No longer did we have to sit and wait for the newcomer to read through their individual directions or play with the buttons on the controller in preparation. Often, a single sentence is all that’s needed to instantaneously comprehend the agenda, and it pays off in a big way.

Not only are traditional control methods used to participate in the mini-games, but there’s also a nice mix of activities that utilize the gyroscopic and touchscreen capabilities of the 3DS. In a mini-game called “Point ‘n’ Shoot”, players move the system around them to find characters hiding in the virtual environment on-screen. In “Starring Artist”, the stylus is used on the touchscreen to copy the pattern of constellations portrayed on the upper display. Beyond that, there are a few puzzle games tucked away in Free Play that are fun to kill time with — a game that uses the microphone to capture your best impressions of popular Nintendo characters, and even a couple that use AR Cards. For our money, this is one of the tightest collections of mini-games to be featured in the Mario Party series, optimized perfectly for pick-up-and-play sessions.

One issue, however, is how inconsequential winning mini-games is becoming in the grand scheme of things. In the most traditional board, called Perilous Palace Path (the longest that lasts 45-60 minutes), players will compete in mini-games for additional dice blocks instead of stars or anything else, allowing them to get an extra step on the competition when running for the finish line. However, getting ahead of the pack isn’t necessarily a good thing, as there are the occasional roadblocks that need to be overcame in order to advance. For example, guessing from one of three buttons to lower a bridge, or knocking health bars off of a Whomp by rolling the dice, thus clearing the way to the goal. Often, lingering behind and being the 2nd or 3rd person to reach these points is more ideal than getting there first. A player can win every single mini-game and still lose at the board – that happened to us several times.

Thankfully, pushing through Party Mode isn't the only way you can get down with the mini-games. Hot-Air Hijinks puts four players, CPU or human, into hot-air balloons and has them competing to be the first to reach 3, 5, or 7 wins. If you simply want to play game-after-game while duking it out for top honours, this is the way to go. And for the rest of you who only have time to squeeze in a couple of matches — or want to play only your favourite mini-games — there's always Free Play.

Bowser’s Tower, a single-player focused mode, is mostly fluff in its repetitive and lengthy design, but it still offers a bit of purpose to those playing alone. One floor at a time, one of two mini-games will be randomly selected, requiring you to win if you want to advance. Every five floors or so are boss battles that deviate slightly from standard mini-game design, providing players with just enough reason to keep climbing all the way to the top – there you’ll face off with Bowser himself, in a scene similar to the final face-off in Super Mario World. We can’t help but feel that Bowser's Tower was almost effortlessly constructed in an attempt to bulk up the package for those playing alone, but there is at least a little fun to be had here – even if only for the boss battles.

Another single player mode, Time Attack, will have you replaying the same 10 mini-games time and time again to set record times. This makes for a solid way to spend 10 minutes, but the life-expectancy of this mode is questionable. There's also a StreetPass mini-game mode, which we sadly weren't able to enjoy at the time of writing as no one else we knew had the game prior to release. According to Nintendo's website this mode is "your invitation to win some matches against other people playing Mario Party: Island Tour, unlock special collectables, and more." For now, we'll just consider this a potential bonus.

Participating in any of the modes earns Mario Party Points which can be used to purchase collectables that grant access to character voice clips and the music featured throughout the game. We imagine most people won’t spend time listening to these audio tracks, but unlocking them instils a feeling of progression, and that can only be considered a good thing in a party game. There are other unlockables as well, but we're not sure exactly how far they go. In the 15 or more hours we spent partying with Mario, we unlocked a hidden playable character and an extra board - making for 10 characters and 7 game boards.

The visuals in Island Tour are satisfactory, getting the job done without doing anything to wow. The majority of our review was played on a 3DS XL and there seemed to be more rough, pixelated edges than in other games that we've played recently. It looks slightly better on a standard model 3DS, yet those edges are still apparent. The use of stereoscopic 3D doesn't add much to the antics, and is never used to enhance any games or puzzles — but it also doesn't get in the way. When involved in games that instruct the 3DS to be titled all over the place, the 3D is either automatically subdued or completely inactive.

The Mario Party series isn't changing much, and when it does, it doesn't seem to be for the better. The pieces of Island Tour that work the best are the ones sticking to the form established early in the series — fun, accessible mini-games that don't over-complicate things. It's the game boards that need better ideas, and the "less is more" approach would suit future instalments better. The focus on luck, swapping places at random, and — specific to this instalment — the short length all conspire to hamper what could easily have been a much more enjoyable experience. There's still a ton of rowdy multiplayer fun to be had, but it's unfortunate that a whole portion of the game is so hit-or-miss.

Conclusion

Even with the misfires and shortcomings plaguing the game boards, we believe Mario Party: Island Tour may still be a sound purchase for kids, families or anyone looking to play with friends. Those seeking a long-lasting single-player experience may want to steer clear though, as there isn't enough depth to the solo-focused modes to keep you engaged for very long. Island Tour doesn't do much different from it predecessors, and the throwaway boards — coupled with some forgettable game modes — definitely hurt the overall experience in a big way. Thankfully, the great collection of mini-games ensures that there may be enough reason for many people to roll the dice.

Well, it's at least above average going by the score system. I'll judge when I play it for myself. Screw what anyone else says, Party 9 is one of my favourites so I'll probably have fun with this game in some way.

these games were meant to be played on a console... and online multiplayer for these games are not needed... this game was meant to be played in local multiplayer.. with your family/friends/girlfriend, etc.

This sounds like one of the worst Mario Party games ever. I stopped playing them after 8, which was the first Mario Party in years to have truly disappointed me.@Romeo The games do support download play. DS is one of the best in the series, if a bit lacking in mini-games.

I'm still getting it. My biggest disappointment is definitely the game boards, but everything else sounds fine. Very bizarre that all of the minigames are free-for-all; I hope the future Mario Party for Wii U won't be the same way. Right now I say the mini-games are my biggest attraction to this game, and I actually would listen to the unlockable music. Bowser's Tower, while a very simple story mode, could still provide some entertainment as well.

I always enjoyed the Mario Party series on GameCube with friends and family. I've had every iteration up through Mario Party 8 and never really understood why this series received such negative responses from some people. It's got clean, great pick-up-and-play, simple mini-games that you don't have to spend half the day learning or teaching everyone how to do this or that, which is a nice option to have when playing with less experienced players.

While I'm glad to see Wii Party available for Wii U (and I'll probably give it a try at some point), I kind of miss the Mario Party series on consoles. I'm sure the 3DS and DS versions are fun, but I (and I'm sure many other gamers) don't have any friends or relatives that A) own a 3DS/DS and/or B) own copies of the same game(s). I realize the business strategy is to sell more game copies and more systems, but this is a SERIOUS impediment to my choosing to purchase ANY multiplayer-centric title for a portable system.
If you're listening, Nintendo, please bring Mario Party to Wii U (and while you're at it, a Wii U version of Advance Wars (with local multiplayer mode where the person whose turn it is moves their units using the Wii U Gamepad away from their opponents' view) would be AWESOME!

Well I'm kinda disappointed by the non-circuitous design of the boards, but all in all it could still end up being fun, so I'm still gonna go for it. I don't really care about the single player anyway, so that's not a major loss for me. I'm getting this to play with my friends.

Got a chance to play this game with a friend at a game event.
We spent a whole hour on it (good thing there was noone in line for try the game XD) and it was damn fun, with laughs and insults flying as only good local multiplayer games can cause.

On the other side however that hour was enough for notice how luck can still reign even too strong in many cases (getting almost an annoying factor) and I totally feared the game wouldn't hold up well in single player.

Luckily in Europe the game will take time for arrive, totally fighted if buying it or not; from a side I can only agree with the review, but on the other side that demo was so much fun DX

Everybody knows Wario is the king of Party games. Mario Party inherited the 'Blue shell' syndrome, it's all starting to feel like the series is built around luck. Pesky game board. MP DS was a disaster.

Darnit. I actually had relatively high hopes for this entry in the series. I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer for a must-have new game in the Mario Party franchise. This version just seems to have too many issues to justify purchasing it.

I don't really see the need for Mario Party to have online play. Just like with past Mario Party games, I always have friends and family to play multiplayer with. Having it on the handheld, means I can just go to the local college and play with my friends while were waiting for a class to start or something.

Regardless of the review, I am getting this game. I'm a fan of the series shrugs what can I say?

Picked this up at the Xbone midnight launch, The Hot-Air Hi-jinx mode is definitely the way to go when playing with friends. I've enjoyed most of the mini-games so far. There's usually a couple in these games I don't like, but for this installment I haven't had that problem so far.

@Yasume Really, it would be hard for online play, and you can't blame them for not including online play. They said that one of the boards takes 45-60 minutes. You can have some people taking an hour to make a decision, some people rage and quit in the middle of a mini game or game board, or have a person's 3DS/3DS XL/2DS die in the middle of the game, or have somebody just go and do something else while in the middle of a game. Adding online play could just bring the game down even more, even though it does seem like a good idea without the possibility of stupid people.

I like the core concept of Mario Party, but I can't really remember the last time I've enjoyed playing one. I guess that game just isn't for us anymore. I like to have a game to enjoy local multiplayer with friends, but this again doesn't seem worth the investment in everyone getting it to play together.

I wish I could have a game that had just the mini games (Say the best 150 from all the Mario Party games) no luck based things in it. (I really like Warioware and the actual mini games in Mario Party).

I guess I sorta saw this coming, as there haven't been any well-recieved Mario Party titles in quite some time. That being said it still looks to be a solid game for those wanting their Mario Party fix, and for some that will be enough.

Hmm... Still going to get it. Seem like a fair above average score (I question why people think 6s & 7s are bad scores). I been having a love/ hate complex with Mario party with its pros and cons over the years. So the best solution for me is to just play the game and make my call on it.

there's a lot of pros and cons to this game, lots of cons actually. However it's not as bad as what Mario Party 9 did and the minigames are really fun as usual, so I'm still enjoying it. I really hate that I can't save a game in progress and do something else with my 3ds though. Odd, since every other Mario Party ever has had a save feature...

Man, I just don't understand how the N64 Mario Parties were some of the best multiplayer fun I've had but every release since then hasn't matched up. Mario Party 9 was very lacklustre after they changed the formula (I haven't gone back to it since release), and now these mistakes have been repeated here. I miss the good old days of non-linear boards and length determined by you. Just bring Mario Party 1-3 to the Wii U Virtual Console and I'll be happy.

Nintendo, please just do Mario Party Collection HD for the Wii U. It could be the first three games with updated graphics, maybe add in some extra content, and possibly pooling all the minigames together so you can play minigames from any of the three games on each board? Even without those added features, I'd pay full price for an HD trilogy release! Better than this in my opinion...

@Yasume But not every game in 2013 has to have online play. You probably can't just as easily replace an AI with another player. You don't know what difficulty for the AI, the character of the AI, and how much progress the AI has. It can't instantly save, so the AI would have to start all over again, and the AI could be made the most difficult, so by the time you finish, it probably won't be an "online" game because probably everybody else will drop out. It's not really an excuse; it's a perfect reason for getting the deadline and making the game better by not having a faulty online mode to ruin it.

Why do they keep making terrible Mario Party games? I bought Mario Party 9 for Wii once assuming it'd just be good old Mario Party, but they changed everything and turned it into an abomination. This sounds like more of the same.

Nintendo has had the opportunity to add online play to their Party games (Wii Party/Mario Party) countless times...there's no excuse for it, and it's looking like they're never going to add online. I'm content with playing it on the N64; until they add online play, no buy.

Nintendo is really trying their best with Mario Party honestly but they aren't going to be as good as the N64 ones or the early GameCube ( 4 and 5) ones. Plus this is 2013/2014 why don't we have online play with a game like this? That would be perfect for a Mario Party game, because not everyone has people in their immediate vicinity that can play games.

Mario Party and online multiplayer should NEVER happen. Local multiplayer is the best with games like Mario Party because after majorly destroying your friend in a minigame or getting an insane amount of coins by sheer luck, it's always more fun to be able to gloat personally than over a headset or to yourself.

I just don't see the appeal of playing a board game with someone over the internet. And I've tried it before resulting in hours, if not days, before they make their next move.

@CountWavula I agree, too!
Mario Party 2 is my favourite. Luckily I got it on Wii virtual console. The first wasn't bad.... but there was some much emphasis on rotating the control-stick, you'd burn your hand. I can't remember if I had played 8 or 9. Neither of them were fun. Since I mostly play alone, I'm not interested in this. At all.
Online multiplayer isn't a terrible idea... but it is a lot more fun when it's local, and you can throw a controller at your sister's head, after losing to them.

The only Mario Party that I've played that I was truly disappointed in was 8. The rest were enjoyable enough, and 9 actually managed to redeem the series for me. It's too bad that Island Tour sounds like it's worse than Mario Party DS, which was rather good, but as long as it's better than 8, I believe I'll be fine.

Also, Mario Party and online would be an odd couple. It could work in a minigame mode, but I can't envision a Mario Party going on without someone losing connection either through frustration or faulty internet and trashing the party for the other players as a result.

If they keep releasing titles like this, I think is time to kill the series. I remeber on the gamecube they were realising one every year, and I never got tired of playing them. Then 8 came out, played it once. Why did they change the formula? It's so bad now

After reading this article, I almost think that I made a right decision to not buy it. No online mode means I seldom have chance to play this game with friend. Short single-player experience means that's not a game for me to play along. Some mode requires 4 human means I may never have chance to play them. Lastly, maybe I will only know it by Jan next year, but if the region-lock policy is same as Mario Kart 7 and Mario Tennis Open, that means I even can't invite my friend without 3DS to play the game with me by using my another 3DS from different region, and can't play with my friends who have 3DS from different region. Overall, no matter this is a good game or not, all those stupid policy or decisions make this game not something I can even play for most parts.

Bought it for my boys. One copy, and 1 3DS XL LMITED ZELDA edition, 1 3DS and 2 2DSs in my household= FUN for everyone. (one of the 3DS's has a hinge broken, will turn that in soon for repairs). So much fun with this. Haven't played a Mario Party game since Mario Party 2.

I really like this game. I got into the series at MP8, and of 8, 9 and Island Tour, I think Island Tour has given me the most single player enjoyment. I haven't played with any humans yet, but play on Super Hard CPU difficulty for the challenge.

My complaints are in line with the article. Luck is a bit overpowering in this game. Playing Bowser's Peculiar Peak, no matter how well I do in the minigames, the CPU always get the optimal dice rolls.

I also have issues with some of the gyroscope controls. The one minigame where you have to tilt the machine to spin the ball with the character in it and aim to match the bottom screen... holy crap, I go one round fine and then the gyroscope goes crazy and won't take the input anymore. I find myself contorting upside-down sometimes to get the thing to respond correctly. By the time you realize it's not responding properly it's way too late to reset the controls because the match is ending.